What NASA’s Next Mars Helicopter May Look Like

NASA’s Mars Chopper concept, shown in a design software rendering, is a more capable proposed follow-on to the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which arrived at the Red Planet in the belly of the Perseverance rover in February 2021.

Chopper would be about the size of an SUV, with six rotors, each with six blades. It could be used to carry science payloads as large as 11 pounds (5 kilograms) distances of up to 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) each Martian day (or sol).

Scientists could use Chopper to study large swaths of terrain in detail, quickly – including areas where rovers cannot safely travel.

Chopper remains in early conceptual and design stages.

The proposed design is the product of collaboration between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the agency’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and AeroVironment Inc.

Astrobiology